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BMC Results 2017: Shiv Sena ahead in Mumbai, falls short of magic mark; what next for it?
Amid all this, the most important question that now has peeped out is who will finally get to rule the BMC? There are a lot of options before Shiv Sena.
Mumbai, Feb 23: The Shiv Sena lead in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Election Results on a total of 84 seats while Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) remained just a few seats behind Sena on 81 seats while Indian National Congress stayed irrelevant all along. The Shiv Sena party supporters had started celebrating their victory even when the Indian far-right regional political party was leading on just 40 seats and BJP on 27 seats. Although Shiv Sena marked a victory winning the most number of seats out of 227 seats of BMC, the party failed to cross the magic mark of 114 seats. The most important question now is who will finally rule BMC?
Although Shiv Sena marked a victory winning the most number of seats out of 227 seats of BMC, the party failed to cross the magic mark. The half way mark to rule the BMC civic body is 114 seats. However, the Congress and the NCP were wiped out by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, even though not an alliance anymore. BJP swept off Maharashtra civic polls with its victory in Nashik, Nagpur, Akola, Ulhasnagar, Pimpri-Chinchwad, Amravati, and Solapur. Overall tally of all municipal corporations till 4 PM was BJP 470, Shiv Sena 215, Congress 99, NCP 108, MNS 16, Others-61
From the moment early trends started pouring-in, it was evident that Shiv Sena will take away the most important corporations of all, the golden egg-laying goose BMC. In fact, it also became clear that for the people of Maharashtra, it is definitely not Congress, not even at the local level. Long before the counting was over for BMC, Shiv Sena supporters started celebrating outside Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray’s residence ‘Matoshree’ in Mumbai.
Amid all this, the most important question that now has peeped out is who will finally get to rule the BMC? There are a lot of options before Shiv Sena. In fact, now that the early trends point at BJP winning 81 seats in Mumbai, it looks like an open game as both the parties may now seek support from other parties to get majority in Mumbai municipal corporation. So, what next for Shiv Sena which is already leading on 84 seats?
To get a majority, it is likely that Uddhav Thackeray might consider joining hands with Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). A few days before the polls, former MNS MLA Bala Nandgaonkar had approached Shiv Sena leaders at Matoshree with the proposal of alliance and to avoid a split in Marathi votes after Shiv Sena broke its 25-year-old alliance with BJP. “We are not setting any conditions about share of seats. The MNS considers itself the Sena’s younger brother. We continue to hope that there will be a positive response from Matoshree,” said MNS leader Bala Nandgaonkar.
Former Speaker and Sena leader Manohar Joshi too had expressed that the alliance between two brothers will have a good impact on civic polls in Maharashtra. In fact, during his civic poll rallies, Raj Thackeray had apparently gone soft on Uddhav Thackeray, and was more against Narendra Modi. Now that the party hasn’t won with the majority, it is expected that Shiv Sena might consider an alliance with MNS.
However, Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray turned down the alliance talks saying that Sena will go solo for the civic elections and will not team up with any party, including the MNS. Why not MNS? This could be because BJP, a few years back, was like a younger brother to Shiv Sena; Shiv Sena had then allowed it to eat up its share of votes. If the alliance between MNS and Sena happens, the history might repeat itself again. Not to forget that Shiv Sena has worked hard for past 5 years to wipe out MNS from its bastions.
Sena-BJP had broken up their 25 years old alliance in 2014 Maharashtra Assembly elections over seat sharing issue. The Sena had won in the 2014 Assembly polls and that too in the face of Modi wave in the country. This could be the reason why Uddhav decided to not have an alliance with any party including the BJP since if he can win without having the most popular man in India, right now, he can very well do without him even in future.
The BJP right now is locked in a neck-and-neck fight with Shiv Sena in Mumbai and it might need Sena’s support in Assembly. Considering the fact that Sena hasn’t reached the halfway mark in BMC, Uddhav Thackeray’s party might look out for other alliances including the BJP to form the majority in Mumbai. A favour for a favour, may be?
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